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Perhaps somewhere along the way somebody should have sent a scout to Denmark.

Maybe that would have shortened the process of looking for a replacement for Ed Belfour in the net of your Toronto Maple Leafs.

As it was, it’s taken 11 seasons (!!!), five general managers, six coaches and 17 goaltending candidates to find someone capable of doing something approximating the job Belfour did for three seasons in the waning years of his stellar career.

But, it appears, the Leafs finally have located such a netminder.

Frederik Andersen has managed to erase those ugly first impressions he made in October, ones that made many wonder if he was just a rerun of Vesa Toskala or Jonathan Bernier, and in so doing likely set himself up for a lengthy run in the Toronto net as the club’s No. 1 goalie.

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How lengthy? Well, what counts as lengthy these days in the NHL? First overall picks last six seasons in the town where they arrived as a saviour. Coaches win a Stanley Cup and last a lot less than that.

So let’s say three years for Andersen. Around here, that would constitute a goaltending era.

Andersen has no bona fide challenger, for starters, and Monday’s shuffling with the backup goalie position underlined that. More importantly, after allowing two goals or less in his last seven starts, and having registered a .931 save percentage since those first five forgettable appearances, the Dane has established himself as just the kind of unflappable presence a young team like the Leafs requires between the pipes.

After being shaky and uncertain in his first appearance after a training camp injury set him back, Andersen has seemingly gained confidence with every start. He’s no Carey Price in most ways, but with his six-foot-four frame covering most of the net, there are nights when he seems as cool and collected as Price, and that’s saying something.

On Saturday against Vancouver, there was a moment, as a Canuck forechecker bore down on Andersen as he played the puck with no teammate nearby, when you expected him to panic. Instead, he made a little head fake, then swung the puck the other way, tape to tape, and the Leafs were off in the opposite direction.

He’s certainly as good a puckhandling goalie as the Leafs have had since Belfour, and that’s another area in which a netminder can help a young, sometimes shaky, blueline corps.

Of course Andersen could still falter. But he has demonstrated rather convincingly in the past month that he has both the ability to play the position very well and to handle the T.O. media spotlight, one of the things you had to wonder about him after he spent the early part of his career in Anaheim.

When things were ugly early, he didn’t wilt or run for cover. That says something.

He’s big while Bernier and Toskala were small, sound where James Reimer was scrambly, composed where Andrew Raycroft seemed uncertain, experienced where Ben Scrivens was learning, and moving into his prime where J.S. Giguere was past his.

Jhonas Enroth, at five-foot-10, didn’t fit the big goalie model the Leafs seem to like, and now he’s gone, placed on waivers and off to Robidas Island, that mysterious place where Lou Lamoriello parks players he doesn’t want, or does want but not right now. That’s where Karri Ramo has been, apparently, and if he signs a contract this week, he could be Andersen’s new backup

For the short term, that job belongs to call-up Antoine Bibeau, who looked like a star-in-the-making while playing junior with Val d’Or but is still making a case for himself at age 22. He’s been doing fine with the AHL Marlies, but he’s also a restricted free agent at the end of this season. Between now and then, you’d think he has to do something noteworthy to make the Leafs want to sign him.

The same goes for Garret Sparks, who beat Hartford on Saturday coming off his Facebook suspension, and played in 17 NHL games last season. He’s a year older than Bibeau, but at one point last season at least looked like he was the best goalie in the AHL and did register a shutout in his NHL debut.

The future, meanwhile, might belong to 18-year-old Joseph Woll — @brick_WOLL29 on Twitter — who is currently learning his trade under Jerry York at Boston College and was named to a preliminary U.S. roster for the world juniors on Monday.

He’s one of those kids who came out of the St. Louis minor hockey system where he was coached by Jeff Brown and Keith Tkachuk, and was coached along the way by former NHL goalie Bruce Racine.

Like Andersen, he’s six-foot-four, and worth watching carefully over the next few years. The Leafs can park him at BC for three years before having to worry about signing him.

With Denmark’s Greatest Goalie now looking solid and consistent, goaltending depth is now where the Leafs have to try and focus. They haven’t had it since they had to make a decision between Curtis Joseph and Felix Potvin, really, and instead have spent their time taking swings at backups from other teams, hoping they could be No. 1 in Toronto.

As of Monday, five of the top six teams in the NHL had a No. 1 goalie who they’d drafted and developed. Of the worst five teams, none did. That says something about patiently investing in the blue paint.

Having gone through a decade of goaltending uncertainty, the Leafs have indeed finally found a stabilizing netminder in a trade with another team. Long term, however, they need to find ways to develop their own.

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